Personal Finance

The high street as we know it has changed forever. Last year, 43 brand names went bust, closing 2,594 stores. And in the first two months of 2019 a further 15 brands vanished from the shopping centres for good.

Are you a saver or a spender? According to new research, one in five (20 per cent) of us think of ourselves as a spender, while two in five (39 per cent) favour saving over splashing out – leaving the other 41 per cent somewhere in the middle.

The Government will put money into an account to pay providers – so find out if you are eligible to claim, writes Martin Lewis

April is the month of rising bills, so be prepared by checking if you could keep your payments down, warns Jenny Ross

This April, whether we’re in, out or, most likely, just shaken all about, one thing is certain... it’s the time of annual public service price rises. While you can’t prevent the rises, there are often other ways to cut these bills. I want to show how you can steal a March (sorry) on April’s hikes.

Imagine spending years building up a nest egg only to be tricked out of it in the space of a few minutes. You don’t have to be careless with your cash to lose life-changing sums. That’s the cruel irony of bank transfer scams – in many cases victims are under the impression that they’re taking steps to protect their account, when in reality they’re sending ­money straight into a fraudster’s pocket.

The PPI clock’s ticking but it’s easy to check so don’t assume you are not entitled to anything, says Martin Lewis

The travel industry must do more to ease the stress of seeking cover by those with a serious medical condition, says Jenny Ross

From 6 April your employer will need to up contributions to your pension – but so will you, warns Martin Lewis

On which coin would you find the Prince of Wales’ feathers? That was one of the questions at a pub quiz I went to last week. I’m pleased to say that our team knew it was a 2p, but the follow-up challenge proved more problematic. A spot prize was on offer for the team who could produce the biggest collection of 2p coins, causing a look of defeat and mild confusion to flicker over my teammates’ faces. Between six of us, we could only muster three, while the spot prize winners scraped together eight.

Receiving a birthday or ­Christmas present should make us feel special.

It’s cold. So no surprise January and February are the busiest beach-booking months of the year, as millions turn their attention to a lovely foreign holiday. With Brexit round the corner, if you’ve booked a trip to Europe, there’s some crucial checks you need to make.

Consumers are set to see their energy bills rocket after watchdog Ofgem said it was to increase a price cap on standard tariffs just six weeks after the measure was introduced.

Extend the new mania for decluttering to your personal finances and reap the benefit, says Jenny Ross

Mortgages are the pelicans of the financial world – seriously big bills. So if you languish on a bad deal it’s very likely to be your biggest waste of cash too.

A number of UK citizens are eligible for the Winter Fuel Payment, which is an additional benefit to help older people keep warm throughout the winter.

‘Tax doesn’t have to be taxing’ – so goes HMRC’s famous slogan. But despite the reassuring voices of Adam Hart-Davis and Moira Stuart repeating the mantra in the long-running ad campaign, I expect many of us remain unconvinced. In fact, Hart-Davis himself later criticised the tax system for being too complex.

Last year, Resolver helped sort out over 2 million complaints for free. I’m massively proud that we were able to help so many people. And those complaints can also give us some clues about the things that we’ll be seeing in 2019. So without further ado, I’m peering into the Resolver crystal ball to give you our predictions for the things that will be on our minds in the year ahead.